Gamochaeta pensylvanica (Willd.) Cabrera [wandering Cudweed]

Gamochaeta pensylvanica (Willd.) Cabrera 

Wandering Cudweed !!

BOTANICAL NAME: Gamochaeta pensylvanica (Willd.) Cabrera 

SYNONYMOUS: Gnaphalium pensylvanicum Willd.

COMMON NAME : wandering Cudweed, Pennsylvania Cudweed, Pennsylvania everlasting

DESCRIPTION AND OCCURENCE: Grows in sclerophyll forest and shrubland on sandy soils; coastal districts north from Nowra. Native of Amer. wetlands and agricultural fields.

DESCRIPTION:
>>Procumbent to erect annual, 20–50 cm high, woolly.Soft herb, branched from the base, probably annual, all parts loosely white-woolly, stems to about 400 mm, often the central one erect, the laterals decumbent then erect, rooting where they touch the ground.

>>Leaves oblanceolate to spathulate, 2.5–8 cm long, 4–18 mm wide, apex rounded to obtuse and mucronate, base attenuate, upper surface green and glabrescent, lower surface white-tomentose to woolly.Leaves up to c. 80 x 20 mm, narrowly spathulate, decreasing in size upwards and passing into inflorescence bracts.

>>Heads 1.5–3 mm diam., in dense or loose terminal spikes subtended by 3 or 4 leafy bracts; involucral bracts oblong-elliptic to obovate, green to straw-coloured, margins and tips hyaline, woolly at base.Heads c. 3 x 2 mm, in small axillary glomerules racemosely arranged. Involucral bracts in c. 3 series, innermost about equalling the flowers, pellucid, palest brown or buff. Flowers c. 80-100 ("female"), 2-3 ("bisexual"), whitish, tipped red-purple.

>>Achenes 0.3–0.5 mm long (mostly 4 mm), obovate, straw-coloured to light brown, microscopically papillate; pappus bristles cohering at the base, 1–2 mm long, minutely barbellate, not persistent. Achenes 0,5 mm long, minutely hairy, myxogenic. Pappus bristles many, scabrid, bases fused in a smooth ring.

FLOWERING: mainly Sept.–Oct.

SOURCES:
>>http://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/slides/Pennsylvania%20Cudweed.html

>>https://www.google.co.in/search?q=Gnaphalium+pensylvanicum+common+names&biw=1241&bih=605&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=EnXJUtPXBYjSrQeN8YDYDA&ved=0CDcQsAQ#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=FqrOTMa5JUI6HM%3A%3BGBNu5tjeg4wspM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.flowersofindia.net%252Fcatalog%252Fslides%252FPennsylvania%252520Cudweed.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.flowersofindia.net%252Fcatalog%252Fslides%252FPennsylvania%252520Cudweed.html%3B600%3B450

>>http://www.virboga.de/Gamochaeta_pensylvanica.htm

>>http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/Gnaphalium%20pensylvanicum

>>http://biodiversity.bt/species/show/3991

>>http://www.academicjournals.org/article/article1380785753_Lu%20et%20al.pdf